دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی وضعیت فعلی و آینده قوانین تصویب شده بهداشت حرفه ای در کشور های کم درآمد - الزویر 2018

abstract

This article addresses three key issues. First, the commonalities, differences, strengths, and limitations of existing occupational safety and health (OSH) legislation of low- and middle-income countries were determined. Second, required revisions were identified and discussed to strengthen the laws in accordance with the best international practice. Finally, proposals for additional OSH laws and interventions were suggested. A literature search of OSH laws of 10 selected low- and middle-income countries was carried out. The laws were subjected to uniform review criteria. Although the agricultural sector employs more than 70% of the population, most of the reviewed countries lack OSH legislation on the sector. Existing OSH laws are gender insensitive, fragmented among various government departments, insufficient, outdated, and nondeterrent to perpetrators and lack incentives for compliance. Conclusively, the legal frameworks require reformation and harmonization for the collective benefit to employees, employers, and regulatory authorities. New OSH legislation for the agricultural sector is required.

5. Conclusion

The shortcomings and opportunities for reformation of OSH laws in low- and middle-income countries have been presented in this article. The expectations of the ILO and WHO on OSH laws are largely yet to be codified into their national laws. The countries appear to be using outdated, fragmented, and nondeterrent legislation which needs to be gender sensitive and strengthened in tandem with international best practices of OSH. Further research needs to consider other elements not addressed in this article, which should be included in the OSH legislation.

There are some limitations in the present study. First, the eligibility criteria used required that enrolled countries have at least three OSH laws available online or obtainable from other sources such as government printers. We were unable to get OSH legislation of some countries. Because the unenrolled countries may have OSH laws entirely different in terms of strengths and shortcomings when compared with those of reviewed nations, our study results may not apply to such countries. More transparency and easier access to public documents may richly benefit further work on improving policies and harmonizing what is today a complicated puzzle. Second, a lot has not been answered by the previous literature and the present study. For example, significant uncertainty still remains concerning what is not working and needs to be improved in international health with regards to occupational exposure and safety. Therefore, further work is extremely needed to generate such knowledge and supportive evidence.